Stocking package



y 1962 B. M. VERLIN 3,044,617

STOCKING PACKAGE Filed Dec. 8. 1955 Fig] F192 i4? '6 I? INVEN TOR. 2o BERNARD M. VERLIN ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,044,617 STOCKING PACKAGE Bernard M. Verlin, Penn Wynne, Pa., assignor to Poplar Textiles, Inc., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Dec. 8, 1955, Ser. No. 551,817 3 Claims. (Cl. 2ti6-79) other short-length stockings, it has long been the practice for the manufacturer to secure together the two stockings forming a pair by means of adhesive paper riders, or the like, and thereafter to ship them, several pairs to a box, to a retailer who displays them on counters and tables for examination by the customers. While stockings thus displayed lend themselves ideally to a determination of their hand and texture by the customer, they are not easily visualized as they will appear when properly stretched, as when worn. Moreover, a great deal of time and effort is required by the retailer to reassemble pairs that have become separated and in untangling and refolding the stockings which have become disarranged during handling, in order to maintain an attractive display.

Attempts to eliminate the added labor and confusion incidental to the merchandising of stockings in the foregoing manner have led to the packaging of individual pairs of stockings in shallow boxes having a cellophane window in one panel through which the stockings may be examined. However, although such a package succeeds in preventing the stockings from becoming separated and confused with others, it is no more effective to display the stockings in the stretched condition than the earlier merchandising methods, and has the additional disadvantage of preventing the customer from feeling the texture of the stocking without opening the package.

More recently, stockings have been packaged by stretching them over thin cardboard strips shaped somewhat like an extended ankle and foot, and thereafter folding such strips and their associated stockings to form a compact package. These packages are in Wide use at present since they exhibit the stocking in the desired stretched lcondi tion and may be maintained in an attractive display with little effort. The disadvantage of such a package, however, is that the cardboard insert prevents a customer from determining the true hand of the stocking since the hardness, stiffness and other characteristics of the cardboard insert effectively mask the characteristics of the stocking material when the examination by handling is made in the usual way.

The foregoing disadvantages of the prior art are avoided by the present invention, in accordance with which a stocking package is provided wherein the stocking, or a pair thereof, envelopes a board insert in flattened condition, and preferably slightly tensioned, the insert having an aperture therein, within the outline of which the hand and texture of the stocking may be felt by a customer without interference from the insert.

In the drawing, wherein a stocking package in accordance with the present invention is illustrated by way of example,

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a board or insert for use in the stocking package;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the insert shown in FIG. 1, in folded position;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a stocking package according stocking package shown generally as 10 (FIGS. 3 and 4) comprises an elongated, flat, substantially stiff insert or board member 11 enveloped by a stocking 12, the board and stocking being substantially coextensive longitudinally, and their widths being so related that the stock ing is presented in a flattened condition, preferably slightly tensioned.

The board or insert strip 11, which may be fabricated from any conventional sheet material, such as chipboard, has substantially parallel longitudinal edges 13, 14, a rounded end portion 16 adapted to fill out the toe of an enveloping stocking, and a necked portion 17 at the opposite end around which the open end of the stocking is adapted to cling, whereby the stocking is prevented from creeping along the board.

Since a stocking package having a length substantially equal to the entire length of the stocking would usually be inconvenient and awkward in many respects, especially for stockings of the larger sizes, I provide a transverse substantially medial score 18 on the board 11 providing a line on which the board may be folded to bring the foot and ankle portions into substantial juxtaposition, whereby the package is rendered more compact and convenient to handle.

In keeping with one of the prime objectives of the invention, an aperture such as 19 is provided in the insert strip 11 at any position which is adapted to be covered by a stocking when the latter envelops the insert to form a package. With this arrangement, when the package is formed, an area is defined within the perimeter of the aperture 19 wherein only the stocking fabric is present, and therefore an appraisal of the hand or texture of the stocking may be made within such area unaffected by the properties of the insert strip. Preferably, the aperture 19 is completely surrounded by the body of the insert, as shown'in the drawing, so that the straight longitudinal edges 13 and 14 are preserved for maintaining the desirable neat outline of a stocking stretched over the board. However, the advantage of the aperture in enabling a customer to feel the texture of the stocking without interference from the insert, may also be realized when the aperture opens along an edge of the insert, although in such case the portion of the stocking bridging the open side of the aperture will of course be unsupported so that with frequent handling that portion of the stocking may become rumpled or disarr-anged, detracting somewhat from the appearance of the package. As used herein, therefore, the term aperture is intended to include an aperture opening on one edge of the insert, as well as one completely surrounded by the insert material.

Where the insert strip or board 11 and its enveloping stocking '12 are intended to be folded upon themselves, as in the preferred embodiment illustrated in the drawing, the aperture 19 is preferably located entirely on one side of the medial score 18 and a second aperture 19', preferably of the same dimensions as the aperture 19, is located in the insert strip on the other side of the score and substantially symmetrically thereto so that when the insert strip is folded on the score 18 the perimeters of the apertures 19 and 19 will be superposed on one another, providing an area within which only the fabric of the stocking is present, as previously described.

It will be understood that, if desired, the apertures 19 and 19' in the embodiment just described may be merged together to form a single aperture. However, when the Patented July 17, 1962.

'weaken that edge somewhat.

In practicing the invention, substantially the entire length of the board 11 is inserted into a stocking 12 so thatthe stocking is completely flattened, and preferably slightly tensioned, over the board. The'heel 20 of lthe stocking is then folded inwardly over the board 11, as shown by the broken lines in FIG. 3, and the board and stocking are folded on the score 1 8 as shown in FIG. 4. Preferably only a single stocking is placed over each board and two such assemblies are secured together, as by a conventional paper loop encircling the pair and/or an adhesive rider fastening the superposed ends of the toe and heel portions of the assemblies. It will be apparent that, if desired, two stockings may be fitted over the same board insert, and the package completed by folding the heels inwardly and thereafter folding the boa-rd on its medial score, as described above.

I claim:

1. A stocking package comprising aflat, substantially stiff, elongated insert of sheet material, and a stocking enveloping and carried by said insert in a flattened condition, said insert and stocking being substantially coextensive longitudinally and folded on a transverse, substantially medial line of said insert to bring the foot and ankle portions of said stocking into substantial juxtaposi- 'tion, said insert being provided with spacedapertures on opposite sides of said medial line substantially symmetrical thereto, whereby said apertures alignwith one another when said insert is folded. Y I

2. A stocking package comprising a flat, substantially stiff, elongated insert of sheet material, and a stocking closely enveloping and carried by said insert in a flattened condition, said insert and stocking being substantially coextensive longitudinally and folded on a transverse, substantially medial line of said insert to bring the foot and ankle portions of said stocking into substantial juxtaposition, said insert being provided with substantially large spaced apertures on opposite sides of said medial line substantially symmetrical thereto and in substantial registration, whereby the hand of the fabric may be felt through said registering apertures.

3. Ina stretch-sock package, a'thin, stiff sock-supporting insert of sheet material having a leg portion of substantially uniform width, a top of reduced width, a foot 7 portion with its opposite edges substantially aligned with those of the leg portion, and a rounded toe, the insert being fold-able along a substantially medial transverse line to juxtapose the'fo-ot and leg portions with the toe and the top adjacent one another and being apertured on opposite sides of the fold line to provide an opening extending entirely through the juxtaposed portions of the insert in its folded position, whereby portions of a sock supported on the insert are out of contact therewith across the opening for ready manual determination of the hand of the sock fabric with the insert in the folded position. 

